EDUC 327 - Discussion Questions

Articles by Brinkmann, Rose, & BBC Documentary

1. What is a social imaginary? What does Brinkmann mean when he writes “I

shall argue that psychology, as an array of practical modes of understanding
and acting, should be seen as having penetrated our social imaginary to the
extent that we have problems seeing that social life can be imagined in non-
psychological terms” (p. 18)?
- Social imaginary: our implicit grasp of social space, implicit norm (that
we do not consciously recognize until we find ourselves in a different
culture).
- The ‘unspoken rules of existence’.
- It explains how people imagine their social surroundings: market
economy, public sphere, and self-governing.
- We cannot separate any aspects of our social lives away from psychology
(terms like trauma, therapy, motivation, attitude, self-esteem, EQ, IQ,
hoarding are all psychological terms; they have recent histories but they
permeate our social existence).
2. What are the “two faces” of psychology that Brinkman identifies? Why do
these two different sides of psychology depend on each other?
- Scientific & Humanistic.
- Scientific methods, quantitative data, questionnaires and inventories,
experimental.
- Humanistic side appeals to the individual’s subjective experience,
therapeutic.
- Science lends credence to the therapeutic and the therapeutic/humanistic
lends credence to the scientific.
3. What are the primary ways Hume and Rousseau have influenced
contemporary psychology?
- Hume: modernism; the world and individuals can be understood through
scientific methods (Newtonian approach)  modern experimental
psychology. (there is no ‘self’, looking at humans as a mechanical system,
how individual parts influence other parts)
- Rousseau: romanticism; process of self-realisation, inner self to be
unleashed (but is hindered and corrupted by society)  humanistic
psychology.
4. What does this mean: “Then we shall see how the methods of psychologists
have become ontologized, read into the constitution of mind itself”
(Brinkmann, p. 30)? (also see p. 31 - 32)
- Subjectification / reification of tools and abstract ideas (e.g., self-esteem
becoming something concrete and measurable, we say a person has low
or high self-esteem).
- Stimuli & responses  started as a tool to measure human responses, but
were reified, we now see and categorize stimuli and responses.
- The concepts that were used to
 - Ontology: nature of being, how something is. (Epistemology: how do I
know?)
- We confuse our tools and methods of study with the actual subject of
study (e.g., humans = self-esteem, stimulus and response, trauma, etc.)
5. Give some examples of how psychological “methodological and therapeutic
technologies hav[e] penetrated our social imaginary and social practices” (p.
35)?
- Technology: application of science to solve a problem.
- Methodological: statistical techniques, probability, testing, psychological
assessments, career assessments, opinion polling, etc.
- Therapeutic: therapy, self-help books and programs (e.g., AA, narcotics
anonymous), peer-helping programs, etc.
6. Why does Rose argue that the history of psychology is a “history of
‘problematizations’” rather than a “history of ‘applications’” (Brinkmann, p.
83)?
- Psychology is used to diagnose / create / conceptualize problems and
then embarks on finding solutions to these problems.
- E.g., responsibility to identify your identity didn’t used to be a problem,
but psychology made it a problem.
7. How has psychology advanced through its alliances with those from other
disciplines? What do professionals from medical, educational and business
disciplines gain from these alliances (Rose, p. 87)?
- Technologies and vocabularies to systematize dealings of human conduct.
- Provides social authority with ethics.
- “Qualify, classify, and punish.”
- Since psychology is “neutral” it is considered a viable method of control in
the context of democracy.
- Psychology grows in power and relevance as it gets disseminated to other
disciplines; these disciplines are in turn legitimized through psychology’s
“evidence-based” approaches (e.g., CBT).
8. Explain what Rose means by psychological “human technologies” (or
psychological techne)? (pp. 87-88)
- The ways in which psychology is organized as a practice to produce
certain outcomes (reform, efficiency, education, cure, or virtue).
- A new way to cognize and legitimate practices for dealing with persons
and conduct.
- How to classify individuals, manage groups, deal with problematic
children. In terms of dealing with ‘problematic’ individuals and groups,
psychology both identifies the problem and provides a solution to it.
- Applications can include therapy, psychological testing, etc.
- “What is the problem for which this is a solution?” (technology sometimes
creates the problem we didn’t even know we had and then provides a
solution).
9. Rose names four broad forms of psychological “techne” that are used in
contexts where human behaviour has been deemed ethically, socially, or
 normatively problematic. For each of the following forms of techne, provide
at least one concrete example:
a. making individuals calculable: measurement of personality traits,
IQ tests, self-directed search (RIASEC), academic grading system,
fitbits (physical data about ourselves that we then use to regulate
ourselves). We calculate ourselves in all sorts of ways and psychology
has helped to do that.
b. guidance for managing collective spaces: self-regulation (e.g.,
provide kids with ideas about red/blue/green zones helps kids and
teachers manage the classroom), sorting people into different
occupations/spaces, team-building exercises in business.
c. assurance and justification for those in authority, and: legitimize
punishment of certain types of people through psychological
diagnoses (e.g., pedophilia), opinion polls (show that figures of
authority is acting in the interest of the ones under their control)
(“The research shows that...” = justification of authority’s decisions
that affect people under their control)
d. means for individuals to work on themselves: self-help manuals,
person-centered counselling, (self-help industry has also integrated
into other technologies to reach a wider audience, e.g., Instagram,
YouTube.)
10. Although psychology often positions itself as an apolitical and neutral
scientific discipline, Rose argues that psychological expertise is actually
closely connected to liberal democratic forms of government. Identify the
three ways psychological expertise is connected to this form of government
(pp. 99 – 100).
- The key premise of liberal democracy is that each individual has freedom.
There is separation of the state/government from privacy; there is
constant tension between how much regulation a government should
have vs. individual freedom.
- Rationality, privacy, and autonomy.
- Rationality: justification for power.
- Privacy: proliferation of psychology into ‘private’ spaces, a way of
exercising control over how people act in these private spheres where
government is not supposed to interfere. Psychology is implicated in
shaping standards of normalcy that affects how we lead our private lives.
- Autonomy: makes people believe that they have individual freedom to
construct their selves (the notion of freedom is important in the context
of a liberal democratic government), promotion of self-regulation. People
are often pre-occupied with their identity nowadays.
- Psychology helps the government regulate individuals in their private life.
It also influences our thoughts through language and problematizations
(e.g., we feel bad about feeling bad about ourselves, so we decide to work
on our self-esteem).
11. How did psychology, in partnership with advertising, shape the self
(according to the BBC documentary, “The Century of the Self”)?
 - The all-consuming self that has a problem expressing itself and bridges
that gap through consumerism.
12. In this documentary, what is the role of politics in shaping the self that
emerges at the end of WWII?
- Roosevelt: people are rational and have the capacity to be active citizens.
- Towards the end of WWII: people are irrational and cannot be relied to
make rational decisions because of their underlying unconscious desires
that they’re not aware of, people as passive consumers, directed to make
market choices all the time.

Since psychology is closely tied to consumerism (psychology is a product), it is

important to be a more discerning consumer of psychology and recognize when
you’re being sold something.

Midterm paper: read Cushman paper for empty self if you want to do that.